Bookstores in Shanghai

Shanghai, Shanghai has 46 bookstores on the map. That's 46 bookshops mapped around Shanghai, each with its own shelves and specialties. The used sections are where the real bargains hide. Give yourself an hour minimum — bookshops are the one errand that always takes longer than planned.

This guide covers every bookstore we could verify in and around Shanghai (within about 25 km), built from OpenStreetMap's community-maintained data. Names you'll run into include 上海书城 and 上海书城, plus 新华书店. If a bookshop's missing from Shanghai's list, it probably just hasn't been mapped yet.

Uchiyama Bookstore Shanghai — Photo: Naoko Kato, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

The Shanghai bookstore lineup

46 mapped within about 25 km:

上海书城

BookstoreRun by 上海新华传媒股份有限公司

Run by 上海新华传媒股份有限公司, 上海书城 is Bookstore, found on 465号福州路 in 上海. Also worth knowing about 上海书城: the map lists its hours as 09:30-21:00 周一至周日; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.

465号福州路, 上海, 200085

Hours: 09:30-21:00 周一至周日

Phone: +86 21 6352 2222;+86 21 6391 4848

Website

上海书城

Bookstore

上海书城 — Bookstore.

新华书店

Bookstore

新华书店 — Bookstore.

外文书店

BookstoreRun by 上海外文图书公司

外文书店 is Bookstore run by 上海外文图书公司 on 390 福州路, 上海市. 外文书店 also notes on the map: the map lists its hours as Mo-Su 10:00-18:30; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip.

390 福州路, 上海市, 200001

Hours: Mo-Su 10:00-18:30

Phone: +86 021-23204888

上海古籍书店

Bookstore

上海古籍书店 is Bookstore.

上海图书公司

Bookstore

上海图书公司 is Bookstore.

Wengu

Bookstore

Wengu is Bookstore.

Rurus home

Bookstore

Rurus home is Bookstore.

衡山·和集

Bookstore

衡山·和集 is Bookstore on 880 衡山路, Shanghai. 衡山·和集 also notes on the map: the map lists its hours as Mo-Su 10:00-22:00.

880 衡山路, Shanghai

Hours: Mo-Su 10:00-22:00

远方图书馆

Bookstore

远方图书馆 is Bookstore.

L'arbre du voyageur

Bookstore

L'arbre du voyageur — Bookstore.

汉源书店

Bookstore

汉源书店 is Bookstore on 27号绍兴路.

27号绍兴路

上海韬奋西文书局有限公司

Bookstore

上海韬奋西文书局有限公司 — Bookstore on 325 长乐路. Also worth knowing about 上海韬奋西文书局有限公司: the map lists its hours as Mo-Su 10:00-22:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.

325 长乐路

Hours: Mo-Su 10:00-22:00

Phone: +86 21 5404 8728

Website

新华书店

Bookstore

新华书店 — Bookstore.

猫的天空之城概念书店

BookstoreRun by 苏州天空之城图书有限公司

猫的天空之城概念书店 is Bookstore run by 苏州天空之城图书有限公司.

上海古籍出版社读者服务部

Bookstore

上海古籍出版社读者服务部 is Bookstore.

涵芬楼阅读体验中心

Bookstore

涵芬楼阅读体验中心 is Bookstore on 399 剑川路. 涵芬楼阅读体验中心 also notes on the map: a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip.

Bookstore

2 have websites listed. Worth a look for events — readings and signings get announced there first.

The Shanghai bookstore crawl

Making a day of it in Shanghai? Work this order: 上海书城 on 465号福州路, 上海书城, 新华书店, 外文书店 on 390 福州路, 上海古籍书店, 上海图书公司, Wengu, and Rurus home. That's the bookstore crawl in one sensible loop, no backtracking. 38 more are listed below.

Bookstore tips for Shanghai

A few things worth knowing before you work through Shanghai's bookstores:

Poetry lives in bookshops at 上海书城. Poetry barely exists online as a browsing experience. The poetry shelf in a real shop is a different world.
Ask the booksellers at 上海书城. A good bookseller lives for the question 'what should I read next?' Give them three books you loved and watch them work.
Look for local history. The local-interest shelf tells you what a town thinks of itself. Great for visitors, better for new residents.
Ask for the out-of-print hunters. Some used shops will hunt down out-of-print titles for you. It takes patience, but the find is worth it.

Good to know

We searched about 25 km around Shanghai — that covers the town itself plus the surrounding communities you'd reasonably drive to. Listings come from OpenStreetMap, mapped by local volunteers, so a brand-new bookstore in Shanghai can take a while to appear. If you spot one of the 46 that's closed, or a great bookstore we missed, the fix is to update the map itself — that's where this guide reads from.

We don't list prices — they change constantly and vary by edition. What we list is the where: real shops, verified by real mappers, in alphabetical order with no favourites.

If you run one of the 46 listed here and something's wrong — a closure, a move, new hours — the fix is the same: update the shop on OpenStreetMap and the correction flows through to this page on the next daily refresh.

Bookstore listings for Shanghai: 46 mapped from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Photos from Wikimedia Commons contributors; individual photo credits appear in captions. Listing data was last refreshed automatically — verify hours before visiting.